


Sturdy

by thesometimeswarrior



Series: Two Hundred Words for Two Hundred Fics! A Celebratory Fic Prompt-Fest! [14]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Ableism, Animals, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Double Drabble, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Canon, Unhealthy Parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-19 08:20:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29871801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: Everyone treats Toph like a porcelin doll, but the badermoles are not so gentle.
Relationships: Toph Beifong & Badermoles, Toph Beifong & Her Parents
Series: Two Hundred Words for Two Hundred Fics! A Celebratory Fic Prompt-Fest! [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1567093
Comments: 9
Kudos: 36





	Sturdy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elf_Kid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elf_Kid/gifts).



> **Prompt: Toph is 8 years old, she comes home riding on a Badgermole. Her parents must be worried by now.**
> 
> \--
> 
> It's been a while since I've written one of these! Thank you for your patience, Elf Kid!

They treat her like a porcelain doll—something fine, dainty, presumably beautiful to look at (not that she’d _know_ ), but never to be touched, never to be allowed off her cushion. When her tutors—or, very occasionally, her parents—grip her hands to guide her around the estate, it’s gingerly, a slight hand pinched between two fingers, as though they’re afraid she might break.

The badgermoles are not so gentle. They nudge and nose her small body backward, douse her with their slimy tongues, splash her with the muddy rocky ground as they bend. It’s more sensation than any scold she’s received from her mother, any pejorative _tut_ from a tutor. 

_You’re not breakable, little one_ , she hears in the way they push and smell and bathe her and scratch her, and she grins and licks them back.

One of them moves, stamps down on the ground, and the bolder beside Toph shatters. 

_They’re strong_ , she thinks, squeezing the stony dirt in her hands, face cracking into a smile. _Maybe they think I am too_. 

When, a full day later, she straddles one of their backs and it carries her home, her father’s gasp of astonishment rings almost like music.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> \--
> 
> This is part of a series of double drabbles I'm writing to celebrate having written 200 fics on ao3!
> 
> I'm accepting prompts in the following fandoms:
> 
> 1) Steven Universe  
> 2) Avatar: The Last Airbender  
> 3) Gravity Falls  
> 4) Tanakh or Talmud


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